


Elusive Elderflower

by MaskedXinger



Category: EXO (Band)
Genre: Angst with a Happy Ending, Buzzfeed Unsolved References, Friends to Lovers, Happy Ending, Haunted Houses, Hurt/Comfort, Light Angst, M/M, Mutual Pining, mention of murder and blood (not graphic but I thought I should still say so
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-17
Updated: 2020-01-17
Packaged: 2021-02-27 10:28:10
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,046
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22295569
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MaskedXinger/pseuds/MaskedXinger
Summary: Chanyeol was not the buzzfeed unsolved team member that he thought he was
Relationships: Kim Jongin | Kai/Park Chanyeol
Comments: 2
Kudos: 39
Collections: Round 3: Autumn and Winter - On the Snow





	Elusive Elderflower

**Author's Note:**

> Prompt Flake:768  
> Author's Note:Thank you to the mods for letting me still submit so late, you guys were very kind to me and that meant the world to me. To the prompter I am sorry for the long wait, I hope my writing may at least live up to your expectations. To everyone who reads this fic, thank you for your time and please do leave comments and kudos if you can!

Chanyeol and Jongin always used the same route home from a busy day working shifts at the Cafe Sacramentum, dragging their feet out the door into a long winding street. Trees arched over this very street, leaves tumbling to the ground to leave a flurry of oranges and mustard yellows. Sometimes Chanyeol would make Jongin stop for him to take photos of him with his film camera. On days like this, if Jongin’s limbs didn’t way him down after a long day of overseeing dance classes with Yixing, he would oblige happily, striking poses that accentuated his model-long legs and gazing into the camera with an intensity that could shivers run down Chanyeol’s spine as he squatted down to get the perfect shots. On other days Jongin would whine and pout, but Chanyeol would snap photos still. Now unlike the brooding model looks he would give Chanyeol there would be a sweet and simple cuteness to how he would hike up his hoodie with the bear ears over his head and begrudgingly smile as Chanyeol teased him.

Jongin sometimes liked dancing in this street, when no one was there but Chanyeol and the stars. He felt most relaxed here, laughing a bit as he kicked moldy drying leaves at Chanyeol who would sniff indignantly before scooping up a pile to throw right back at him. By now the trees were beginning to shed their warm, bright leaves and becoming skeletal, a complete one-eighty from their previous luscious greens. With childish delight, Chanyeol and Jongin were hopping into bunches of leaves, carefully listening to them crush and crumble beneath their feet as they giggled with glee after a long day of lectures and tutorials. When they had met at the entrance, Chanyeol’s face was gloomy after a disappointing mark on his essay on “the Philosophical Analysis of Biotechnology” and Jongin was lamenting how his tutor was ragging on him and Yixing in the tutorial for no reason. Right now though, in this moment, none of that mattered, they were light on their feet. Until Jongin crashed right into Chanyeol.

“Hey! What gives?!” he exclaimed at Chanyeol, who hadn’t even turned to see if he was okay.

“What the fuck is that?” Chanyeol said instead. Jongin frowned at his back, but he lifted his head slightly and he saw what had caught Chanyeol’s attention so suddenly. In their usual pathway, surrounded by almost naked trees in the middle of what was once the road that they walked on was a house. A rundown house with a tinny roof and cracked windows, yes, but a house all the same was there. All these months from spring to autumn where Chanyeol and Jongin had made their way home from SNU, this house was never there, Yet, here it was and here they were.

“…… What the fuck IS that?!” Jongin croaked out. Chanyeol looked unimpressed by him,

“Jongin I just said that.”

What should they do?

Jongin knew what he wanted to do. Go home, unwind with Chanyeol by eating some cheap instant noodles and deal with their curiosity by using the trusty Naver search engine. But one glance at Chanyeol and Jongin knew that that wouldn’t be the case.

Chanyeol had always been the adventurous one of the two. Haunted houses, bungee jumping, unfathomably high roller coasters, Chanyeol loved them all. Paranormal stuff, conspiracy theories and anything else stroked his interest true. The adrenaline rush, the discovery of the unknown. All of that.

Jongin sighed. They better not die. That entire binge watching of buzzfeed unsolved had done absolutely no good for Chanyeol.

Chanyeol and Jongin slowly approached the house in their path. The wooden door was broken down and the closer they got the damper and staler the air surrounding them became. Jongin glued himself to Chanyeol’s back out of preservation and almost jumped out of his skin when Chanyeol startled. Frantically he tossed his head about them only to see Chanyeol’s shoulders shake... And then laughter. Wow. Fuck him. He moved to pull away from Chanyeol completely, indignant and just wanting to go home. Chanyeol didn’t let him go though, instead intertwining their fingers and using his free hand to forcefully open the door.

“Hello?” Somehow despite the broken down nature of this strange house, Chanyeol’s booming voice echoed about. He stepped in, yanking Jongin along. Jongin tried not to whimper when Chanyeol separated their hands to switch on the torchlight app on his phone. Jongin was not one to get easily terrified but a random wooden hut in a path he could venture with his eyes closed was a suspicious event. Why here? Why the path less trodden that he and Chanyeol loved for that reason?

Jongin wished that he had taken up Yixing’s offer to study together. Yes Yixing would insist that they work themselves to the bone, reviewing materials et cetera et cetera but it sure beat whatever this was. Honestly Jongin had hoped for a nice regular day going home with Chanyeol, ordering pizza arguing about whether pineapple belonged on it before getting one Hawaiian and one pepperoni pizza and binge watching the untamed for the billionth time. With sneaky cuddles, lots of sneaky cuddles. Ones where Chanyeol’s curly hair would fall into his eyes, needing a haircut. Jongin would slide Chanyeol’s glasses down his nose bridge and let said glasses sit on his face. Chanyeol would smile at him and Jongin would think about kissing him. But he wouldn’t. Because Chanyeol and him weren’t like that.

“Oh my God.” Jongin breathed out, feeling shocked as shivers wracked his body. The first thing he saw was a massive framed photo that looked like him and Chanyeol in wedding garb. But their faces were painted like zombies and their clothes looked drenched in blood. Tightening his hold on Chanyeol’s, he moved a little closer. He started to hear noises like something was whispering to him. Then he saw it. Broken glass, in front of the photo, straight out of a murder scene.

“Chanyeol-“He said with urgency. There was no answer as he turned to look at Chanyeol, suddenly Chanyeol pulled away and the flashlight went out.

Jongin felt frozen in place, feeling the cold air enter the cracks of the window. His chest was painful and he began clutching at it. He couldn’t breathe. He was choking and gasping to breathe, his vision becoming cloudier in the semi dark and bile rising up his throat. Was it hot? Was it cold? Jongin couldn’t tell he was sweating and trembling all at once. He couldn’t see clearly, where was Chanyeol? He sobbed out Chanyeol’s name finally and thought he imagined Chanyeol’s voice. Hands clasped at his arms and everything went black.

When Jongin came to, he was back in his and Chanyeol’s apartment. He had a wet cloth on his head and sat by his bed was a guilty looking Chanyeol with red rimmed eyes and a stern looking Minseok.

“You’re finally up.” Minseok said, smiling at him before coldly turning to Chanyeol again. As though sharing a secret message, Minseok sighed and left the room to eavesdrop from the kitchen.

“I am sorry. You said you’d never been to a haunted house and I thought it would make a funny prank.” Chanyeol said avoiding eye contact. Jongin almost asked what he meant and then he realised.... The house in their path was Chanyeol’s own creation. He felt like an idiot, these past few months Chanyeol seemed to be more focused on his architecture degree with dedication that he threw into his passion projects.

“I didn’t know that you had problems with panic attacks, I swear I would never do that to you please believe me.” Chanyeol pleaded after being met with silence. Chanyeol was sort of right. Jongin had a habit of compartmentalising things between them, afraid to bare his soul and be vulnerable with Chanyeol. He had a good grasp over what to do when he panicked most of the time so he had never really told Chanyeol about it. Minseok who was specialising in psychiatry hadn’t liked his cousin’s choice, arguing that something would happen and of course he was correct as per usual.

“Honestly I am not even mad at you.” He sighed. He honestly wished they had gotten home straight away and hung out instead of dealing with Chanyeol’s extravagant prank.

He needed to know something though.

“Your pranks are usually far less scary, not at all elaborate and honestly? A little silly. You aren’t one for this kind of prank. Why did you do it?”

Chanyeol looked at his knees. He had no desire to answer. In hindsight it was all so ridiculous and he couldn’t lose face any further in front of Jongin.

“I heard you that time.”

“Heard what?”

:”I heard you tell Yixing that he was wrong about your liking me as more than friends because you could never like someone as focused on weird shit like the paranormal and conspiracies like me. It hurt my feelings.” Jongin remembered that day very clearly. A couple of months back Yixing asked if he needed a ride to the summer carnival since all their friends wanted to link up there. Jongin had declined, Chanyeol was taking him there. He felt Yixing’s knowing gaze on him as Yixing teasingly said he forgot about the rest of them these days for his boyfriend, Chanyeol. It hit a nerve. He wished he was Chanyeol’s boyfriend. They spent every waking moment together but they were not _REALLY_ together, not how he wanted. He hadn’t thought about it with himself so he didn’t want to work through it with his best friend either. Best friend meant Yixing knew the truth and tried to goad him into admitting it, Jongin desperately threw excuses and finally one stuck, Yixing wasn’t laughing. Chanyeol had arrived a minute or so later, tight lipped smile on his face. He asked what was wrong; Chanyeol shook his head and gave a non committal answer.

The carnival had been a blast. Chanyeol’s face had a real smile. They ate their weight in candied apples and corndogs and played all the rigged games. They passed a haunted house and Chanyeol wanted to go in with Jongin. Jongin saw his face fall as he declined and was quick to say that he had never been in one. Really he just hadn’t felt like it. The jump scares and ghosts did nothing for him, and it reminded him too much of his conversation with Yixing.

He didn’t know Chanyeol heard him but he did know that many people made fun of Chanyeol’s interests. Jongin hadn’t wanted to hurt him he just didn’t want to dwell on what they could never be.

“I’m sorry Channie.” Chanyeol gave Jongin a teary smile. He always forgave easily.

“I gave you a panic attack over a bruised ego you don’t owe me an apology NiNi.” Jongin felt a bit brave in this moment of absurd vulnerability.

“I told Yixing that because he figured out that I liked you romantically and I tried to convince him that I can’t stand you like that.” Chanyeol looked at him pensively at first. And then he cracked up. Jongin flinched before Chanyeol said words he never expected to hear.

“I like you too. Romantically.” They were fools. They were clowns. It felt like they stepped right out of a web novel. He pulled Chanyeol in; he was going to get his cuddles in. Chanyeol willingly wrapped his arms around his waist and pressed his nose into Jongin’s neck.

The moment didn’t last long because as it turns out they had company. The door crashed open and all their friends were there. Minseok, Baekhyun, Yixing, Jongdae, Junmyeon, Sehun and Kyungsoo all tumbled in.

Not one to be embarrassed, Baekhyun claimed that he was worried about Jongin after Minseok SNITCHED on Chanyeol about the prank and insisted that he also wanted cuddles and wriggled his way onto the tiny bed. The others followed suit and soon they all rolled off of the bed dying with laughter.

Jongin and Chanyeol could chat later, in this moment of joy as the air became crisper; they were living in the moment with their family of friends.


End file.
